CS Knowledge Base

The territory that would later form Medri Bahri was part of the heartland of the ancient Aksumite Empire. Archaeological evidence shows that the Hamasen highlands had been an area of economically flourishing culture since around 800 BC, with a settlement density among the highest on the African continent, linked to the so-called Ona culture.^[1] The name Hamasen itself may be ancient, with a possible identification with MSW ("Amasu"), a province registered in the Egyptian "Lists of Foreign People" of Pharaoh Thutmosis III, ca. 1458 BC.^[1] In Aksumite times, Hamasen appears in a pre-Christian fourth-century inscription of King Ezana, who received the homage of the Metin peoples there after subduing the coastal kingdom of Gabaz.^[1]

Seraye, the southernmost of the three highland provinces, also has a documented Aksumite presence. A rock inscription at Sehuf Emni, Qwahayn, in Epigraphic South Arabian script and palaeographically comparable to Ezana's trilingual inscriptions, testifies to the region's role in Aksumite times, and Aksumite-period church foundations survive at Enda Mikael in Debarwa, on the border of Hamasen and Seraye.^[2] According to the historian Sergew Hable Selassie, the name of the Mareb River itself may derive from the South Arabian settlers who named it after the famous dam of Marib in Yemen, and "Serae" (Seraye) is similarly linked to the South Arabian "Sarwan" and "Sarat" mountains.^[3]According to written and oral traditions, around the end of the 13th and early 14th century, the former Balaw (of Beja origin) and Kunama inhabitants of Seraye were replaced by the Adkama Malga, Agaw immigrants from Lasta, who assumed the Tigrinya language and played a dominant role in the area until the 18th century, when they came into conflict with the Daqqi Tassem of Hamasen.^[4]

Adulis remained the principal Aksumite port on the Red Sea throughout this period. The Egyptian merchant and monk Cosmas Indicopleustes, who visited the port in 523, described its trade, together with that of the Ethiopian and Nubian interior, with India, Ceylon and other regions in his geographical treatise, the Christian Topography. According to his account, the Aksumites at the time required all vessels passing through that part of the Red Sea to pay for the right of passage and call at Adulis.^[5]

After the decline of Aksum around the seventh century AD, parts of Hamasen came under the control of Beja and other Muslim tribes, possibly responsible for the first exploitation of gold mines in the region. During the last decades of the Zagwe dynasty and the first period of the restored Solomonic dynasty, Agaw groups linked with the Zagwe fled from Lasta into Hamasen, and the ancestors of the Bogos (Bilin) people also migrated through Hamasen at this time. These population movements left traces in many Cushitic-origin toponyms in the region, including the name of Debarwa itself.^[6]

Trade routes departing from Massawa and then following the course of the Anseba river northward connected Hamasen with the lowlands of the Sudan. The local Tigrinya groups of Hamasen kept their own petty leaders but were possibly tributary to the maekele bahr (lit. "the middle of the coast"), as the governor of the provinces between the Ethiopian highlands and the Red Sea is called in a series of local 13th- to 15th-century documents from the "Golden Gospel" of Debre Libanos of Ham.^[6]

Relations between the Aksumite kingdom and Arabia turned to open conflict in the seventh century. After pirates from the Kingdom of Axum sacked Jeddah in 702, Arab forces retaliated by seizing a string of harbors on the opposite shore, including Suakin, where they dispossessed the Beja who held it, along with Massawa, then still only an anchorage, and the Dahlak islands.^[7] Arab control of the ports sharply reduced Aksum's foreign trade and is thought to have spurred the empire's expansion southward into the interior instead, coinciding with growing Beja pressure on the highlands as Beja groups moved into Hamasen from the late seventh or early eighth century.^[8]

A tributary relationship with the coast nonetheless outlasted the loss of direct control for some time. The Arab historian al-Yaqubi, writing in 872, described the Najashi's kingdom as still reaching the sea and encompassing the Dahlak islands. Al-Masudi, writing in 935, likewise reported that Dahlak and the neighbouring coastal plain remained tributary to Ethiopia, and that the Najashi had concluded a treaty of friendship with the Yemeni king Ibrahim bin Ziyad, under which ships from Zabid traded freely with Ethiopia. Ibn Hawqal, writing in 977–78, similarly described Zeila as under Ethiopian Christian rule and at peace with its Muslim trading partners.^[9] This tributary relationship broke down amid the political fragmentation of the Zagwe era, during which separatist dynasties took control of both Dahlak and Zeila.^[10]

Both Hamasen and Seraye "passed, like much of the northern highlands, under Zagwe suzerainty" according to Taddesse Tamrat, confirmed by a land grant of the Zagwe king Lalibela preserved in the monastery of Debre Libanos of the north.^[11] The Zagwe pursued a deliberate strategy for annexing the regions beyond the Mareb River, at one point resettling Agaw groups from Wallo there.^[11] The title baher nagasi for a governor of the coast appears even in a land grant of the Zagwe king Tatadim, who ruled during the eleventh century, in a grant issued in the twelfth year of his reign to the church of Ura Masqal; the document threatened excommunication against the seyyuman ("appointed ones") of Agama, Bur, and Sarawe, as well as an officer bearing the title of baher nagasi, described as viceroy of the coast.^[12]

The fall of the Zagwe dynasty around 1270 and its replacement by the Solomonic dynasty "sparked off a series of population movements from the Lasta region to north-eastern Tigray, Akala-Guzai, Hamasen, and Saraye," resulting in a struggle for power between newcomers and original inhabitants, and the eventual transfer of political supremacy from the Christian Balaw tribes to new Tigrinya-speaking settlers.^[11] The Balaw tribes were of Beja origin and had dominated the Eritrean plateau, including probably some districts south of the Mareb, before this transformation.^[11] Local genealogical tradition traces the early Solomonic-period Tigrinya settlement of Hamasen and Akkele Guzai to a single legendary founder remembered as negui Meroni.^[13]

The office of the Bahr Negash had roots stretching back to the Aksumite period. The coast around Massawa is recorded as under Beja domination by the 8th century, before the rise of the Dahlak sultanate in the 11th century made the port the main link between the Muslim-controlled Red Sea coast and the Christian highlands.^[14]

Local tradition records the existence of a ruler called the shum bahri (also ieyyuma baher, meaning "ruler of the sea"), who controlled trade routes between Massawa and the Christian highlands, and who may originally have been a prefect appointed by the Aksumites. Even after the Sultanate of Dahlak became independent, its sultan continued to be referred to by Abyssinians using the Aksumite title ieyyuma baher, reflecting the persistence of Ethiopian institutional memory over the coast.^[15]

During the reign of Amda Seyon I (r. 1314-1344), the northern maritime provinces were brought under tighter imperial control. When a rebellion broke out in Tigre in 1328, the king placed one of his sons over the region with the title of maekele bahr, meaning "between the rivers or seas", covering the territory between the Mareb River and the Red Sea, a title already used in the Zagwe period and probably the precursor of the later Bahr Negash title.^[16]

Amda Seyon was deeply concerned about the dangers of Muslim power on the Eritrean coast. His recent campaigns against the Muslims of Ifat and eastern Shawa were resented by their fellow Muslims in the north, who may have cooperated with the rebellious army in northern Tigre. This may have provided an immediate reason for his expedition to the region. A hagiographic account of the period states: "I, King Amda Seyon, went to the sea of Eritrea. When I reached there, I mounted on an elephant and entered the sea. I took up my arrows and spears, killed my enemies, and saved my people."^[17]

Despite this appointment, the maekele bahr did not yet constitute a formal administrative unit; rather, it remained a descriptive geographic term for the region between the Mareb River and the Red Sea, governed by local chiefs recognized by the Solomonic kings until the time of Zara Yaqob.^[18] By the same year, two named officials in Hamasen already appear in the sources as local rulers.^[11]

At least four Ethiopian monarchs of this period are recorded granting land to monasteries in the far north. Amda Seyon issued a land charter in favor of the monastery of Debre Libanos. Sayfa Ar'ad (r. 1342–1370) allocated two areas in Seraye to the convent of Abba Madhanina Egzi'e of Bankwal. Emperor Dawit granted an estate at Karnessem in Hamasen to the monastery of Debre Bizen, while Yeshaq I gave a stretch of land in Seraye to that of Debre Abbay.^[19][b] Contact between the court and the northern provinces is further suggested by another medieval text, which records that the courtiers of Emperor Dawit I (r. 1380–1409) included men from Hamasen, Seraye and neighbouring districts.^[19][c]

Before Zara Yaqob's formal administrative reforms, Yeshaq I (r. 1414–1430) had already extended imperial presence along the coast by settling a military regiment at Massawa in 1417.^[18]

The older title maekele bahr ("middle of the coast"), used during the Zagwe period and still in use during the reign of Amda Seyon, was abolished by Zara Yaqob, who sought to unify the administrative system of his kingdom.^[20] According to historian Richard Pankhurst, it was during the reign of Emperor Zara Yaqob (r. 1433–1468) when the title Bahr Negash ("Ruler of the sea") appeared for the first time. As part of his reforms, he "increased the power of the bahr nagash" and raised him "much above" all the shums^[d], and he was given authority over the rulers of Shire^[e] as well as control over the shum of Saraye, the two kantibas^[f] of Hamasen, and the shum of Bur.^[21][6] However, according to the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, it was his Zara Yaqob's son, Emperor Baeda Maryam I, who subsequently established the specific title of Bahr Negash for the three northern provinces of Angot, Qeda^[g], and Tigray.^[20]

To strengthen the imperial presence in the area, Zara Yaqob also established a military colony consisting of Maya warriors from the south of his realm. These settlers were believed to have terrified the local population, and it was said that the "earth trembled at their arrival" and the inhabitants "fled the country in fear".^[21]

In 1449/50, only one year after establishing the military colonies on the plateau, Zara Yaqob began construction of a seaport at Girar on the mainland opposite Massawa, intending a more permanent occupation of the coastal districts. This activity was met with hostility from the local Muslim population and led to armed conflict. It is reported that the islands of Massawa and Dahlak were pillaged in 1464/5, and that the Qadi of the islands lost his life in the encounter. However, a lasting occupation of the coast ultimately did not succeed.^[22]

The capital of the Bahr Negash was Debarwa, located next to the sources of the Mareb River; he occasionally moved to other district centres, including the nearby Addi Baro, which has sometimes been mistakenly identified as the original seat of the office.^[23]

Bur (ቡር) was a large and vaguely delimited historical region across the present-day Ethio-Eritrean border, divided into Upper Bur and Lower Bur. Its territory covered parts of Agame, the entire province of Akkele Guzai, and lands further east, possibly including the Buri Peninsula. From the 14th century, the region fell into the sphere of the Ewostatean monastic movement.^[24]

In the first half of the 15th century, Bur seems to have been governed by a seyum whom Emperor Zara Yaqob placed under the supremacy of the Bahr Negash, alongside the governors of Shiré, Hamasen, and Seraye. In the time of Emperor Lebna Dengel, the office of seyum was held by Zemal, a favorite of the Emperor, who fought alongside him against Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi and was killed on 11 March 1529 in the Battle of Shimbra Kure.^[24]

After the defeat of Bahr Negash Yeshaq in 1578, Bur fell under the rule of the tegre makwannen. The Ottoman Turks attempted to invade Bur during this period but were beaten back by local farmers (falahin): the Chronicle of Galawdewos records how troops raiding "one of the districts of Bur" were repelled, their commander Yishaq killed, and his head sent to Emperor Galawdewos.^[h][25]

As a coastal region, Bur was of economic importance to the emperors. The Chronicle of Emperor Iyasu II describes it as part of Tigray and "the land of Bur which brings [the tribute of] 20 shekels of gold." In later periods, smaller territorial units appeared in the area and the name Bur fell out of use.^[24]

A major factor in the Christianization and political consolidation of the northern highlands was the Ewostatean monastic movement, named after Ewostatewos of Debre Sarabi (ca. 1273–1352), who was born and educated in eastern Tigray. His followers, the Daqiqa Ewostatewos ("Sons of Ewostatewos"), proved significant for the regions of Seraye, Hamasen, Shiré, and Bur. They were initially forced to cross the Mareb River to escape persecution under Emperor Amda Seyon I, and by the end of the fourteenth century had established themselves firmly along the western edge of the Eritrean plateau.^[26] The earliest monastic settlement of the Daqiqa Ewostatewos beyond the Mareb was Debre Maryam in Qwahayn (Seraye), founded by Absadi around 1374; it became the cradle of the Ewostatean movement for the entire northern highland zone.^[27]

The Ewostatean movement had a deep relationship with local political structures. The leader of the movement in the north, Warasina Egzi of Seraye, headed the Adkama Melga descent group and used the movement for enhancing local autonomy against both the emperor and the metropolitan.^[28] The Adkama Melga had initially sheltered Ewostatewos, but conflict arose when he demanded that Warasina Egzi renounce bigamy. According to hagiographic tradition, Warasina Egzi had him jailed, then drove him from Seraye to the land of the Agaw Bilin, from where he was eventually exiled to Nubia.^[29]

Icon triptych of Ewostatewos and eight of his disciples

The monastery of Debre Bizen on the edge of the Hamasen plateau overlooking the Sea of Eritrea. It was founded by Abba Fillipos in A.D. 1390/1, and continued to be a strong centre of the House of Ewostatewos

During the reign of Zara Yaqob, the Ewostateans were reconciled with the imperial church. This reconciliation was mediated notably by Fileppos, the abbot of Debre Bizen, the great monastery in Hamasen that "dominates the road that leads from the highlands and the Hamasen plain to the seaboard and the port of Massawa."^[28] By this time there were three major Ewostatean centres: Debre Maryam, Debre Bizen, and Debre Daqqi Ita in Maragwez, the southernmost district of Seraye, each with large numbers of monks and affiliated dependent houses.^[30]

Ethiopian royal trade at the coast is attested slightly earlier than Alvares's visit. The Armenian agent Matthew, later sent by the Empress Regent Eleni on her embassy to King Manuel I of Portugal in 1509, had previously traded on her behalf at Massawa, Decamim and Dahlak.^[31]

In the 1520s, Medri Bahri was visited by the Portuguese traveller and priest Francisco Alvares. The current Bahr Negash bore the name Dori and resided in Debarwa, a town on the very northern edge of the highlands. Dori was an uncle of Emperor Lebna Dengel, to whom he paid tribute.^[32] These tributes were traditionally paid with horses and imported cloth and carpets.^[33] Dori was said to wield considerable power, with his authority extending from the Hamasien highlands to the port of Hirgigo. He was also a promoter of Christianity, generously gifting the churches and monasteries everything they needed.^[34] By the time of Alvares' visit, Dori was engaged in warfare against some Nubians after the latter had killed his son. The Nubians were known as robbers and generally had a rather bad reputation.^[35] They originated somewhere five to six days away from Debarwa, possibly Taka (a historical province named after Jebel Taka near modern Kassala).^[i][36]

Alvares witnessed the annual geber, or tax, paid by the Bahr Nagash's domains to Lebna Dengel alongside those from three other regions: Tigray, Gojjam and Hadeya. The Bahr Nagash arrived with many lords and troops stationed in his lands, spending the entire first day presenting 150 horses, which were run and made to jump before the Emperor. The remainder of the tribute, presented the following day, consisted of silks and thin cloth from India.^[37] The status of the territory was later specified by Lebna Dengel in a letter to King Manuel I of Portugal, in which he described the Bahr Nagash as "lord as far as Egypt."^[38]

When Alvares and his companions landed at Massawa in 1520, they were met by two emissaries from the mainland town of Hirgigo, one Christian and one Muslim, who told them the town and the surrounding mainland belonged to Christians governed by the Bahr Negash, and that Christian and Muslim inhabitants alike fled to the mountains wherever Ottoman raiders approached.^[39] The Bahr Negash of the time was a brother of the Emperor's mother.^[39] A Portuguese man-of-war reaching Massawa the following year found a number of Gujarati trading vessels at anchor; the Portuguese fleet pursued and destroyed one, while the others fled north to Suakin or south to Hirgigo and Decamim, and the Muslim merchants of Massawa took refuge with the Ethiopian governor of Hirgigo.^[39] A delegation from Hirgigo welcomed the Portuguese captain with visible enthusiasm, the local governor's letter expressing thanks that the long-prophesied arrival of Christians from overseas had finally come to pass; when the delegation returned to the mainland, a crowd said to number two thousand rushed into the sea to help drag their boat ashore, chanting only "Christian, Christian, Jesus Christ, Son of Mary".^[40]

In subsequent talks, the Portuguese captain proposed removing the Moors from Dahlak and Massawa and building a fortress at the latter port, declaring that the kings of Portugal had "always made war against the Moors" and had taken many of their lands in various parts of Africa. The Bahr Negash replied enthusiastically that his master desired nothing more than to see the Moors cleared from the land, offering men and supplies for the project. He added that the proposed fortress could be built whenever they pleased, as everything was at their king's disposal.^[41] Lebna Dengel himself was more cautious. Shown a map of the world by the Portuguese emissaries, he was struck by how small Portugal appeared on it, and proposed instead that Spain, Portugal and France jointly fortify Zeila, Massawa and Suakin so as to guard the Red Sea together with his own forces.^[42] The Portuguese replied that their king alone was capable of guarding the Red Sea "against all the power of the great Sultan and of the great Turk", citing his conquests against the King of Fez and Morocco.^[42] Only half persuaded, Lebna Dengel agreed to collaborate with Portugal alone, writing to John III of Portugal to propose joint operations against the Turks, and to the Portuguese Captain-General of the Indies, Diogo Lopes de Sequeira, granting permission to build a church and fortress at Massawa and Dahlak.^[43]

Other informants of the Venetian Alessandro Zorzi described the extent of the Bahr Negash's authority in this period. The Franciscan Brother Thomas, writing in 1523, reported that the Bahr Negash ruled the coast as far as, but not including, Suakin in the north, and held his capital at Debarwa, from where he governed Bizen, Amba Derho, Massawa, the coastal village of Edd, and several other dependencies; the barren country between Massawa and Suakin, he added, was inhabited only by shepherds and was avoided by travelers as unsafe.^[44] Suakin, Zorzi's informants agreed, was the preferred route for Ethiopian pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem, a role it retained until Ottoman conquests in Egypt and Arabia around 1516 made the route far more dangerous; a caravan of some 1,500 pilgrims that left in 1517 was largely destroyed by Ottoman troops, and a further caravan of over three hundred friars and priests was attacked and enslaved in 1525.^[45]

The territory held particular economic value as a transit zone for long-distance trade. Two main caravan routes passed through it: the main route ran via Tamben and split around the Asmara area, one branch continuing toward Suakin on the Sudanese coast and the other descending from the plateau to the mainland port facing the island of Massawa. Control of these routes was a significant source of the Bahr Negash's wealth and political leverage.^[46]

The goods flowing through Hergigo and Massawa during this period consisted mainly of gold, ivory, slaves, honey, and wax, making control of the coastal access one of the most economically consequential offices in the northern empire.^[38]

The far north was among the last parts of the empire to face the forces of Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi during the Ethiopian-Adal War. Prior to the invasion reaching the region, troops from Saraye had fought alongside the Tigrayan army in the south, where both the Bahr Nagash Za-Wangel, who was a favorite of the Emperor, and the shum of Hamasen were killed, and the ruler of Saraye was taken prisoner at Damot.^[47] The army the Emperor led to the Battle of Shimbra Kure in 1529 itself included a contingent from the country of the Bahr Negash alongside several Agaw troops.^[48] When Ahmad pushed into Tigray in 1535 and captured Aksum, part of his army crossed the Marab River into Saraye, installing Tedros, a relative of local nobleman Tasfa Le'ul, as a puppet governor answerable to Ahmad's nephew Vizier Abbas. Tasfa Le'ul fiercely opposed the occupation, killing both Tedros and the Adal general Vizier Addole, whose head was dispatched to the Ethiopian emperor.^[49]

Addole's death prompted Ahmad to launch a punitive campaign into Saraye, where local fighters attempted resistance but were overwhelmed and driven back. The population submitted and agreed to pay tribute, and Ahmad installed new administrators over both Saraye and Hamasen. However, in Tigray the Adalite troops were plagued by a famine and an epidemic that was so severe that a number of Muslim soldiers converted to Christianity. Ahmad eventually recognized that holding the region was unsustainable and withdrew to the southwest in Begmeder.^[49]

When the Portuguese governor of India stopped at Massawa in February 1541, it was the Bahr Negash Yeshaq who informed him of King Galawdewos's precarious situation, directly contributing to the formation of the Portuguese military company of 400 soldiers subsequently dispatched to aid Ethiopia.^[50]

The damage left by the Muslim occupation was documented by the Portuguese soldier Miguel de Castanhoso upon his arrival in 1541. He found a major church near the coast destroyed and the surrounding land devastated. The villages around Debarwa had been abandoned, their inhabitants having fled into the mountains with their livestock. Local monks emerged from hiding to greet the Portuguese "with crosses in their hands, in solemn procession, praying God for pity", pleading for retribution against those who had ravaged their land.^[51]

The Portuguese naval commander João de Castro, visiting Massawa in 1541, reported that the island, previously under Ethiopian sovereignty, had recently been seized by the King of Dahlak; Portuguese forces broke the usurper's hold and briefly occupied the port themselves to secure their communications with Cristóvão da Gama's expedition inland.^[44][j]

After the death of Imam Ahmad in 1543, Emperor Gelawdewos soon established control over the country of the Bahr Nagash, where he renewed Emperor Zara Yaqob's land charter in favor of the monastery of Debre Bizen. Gelawdewos also exiled several of the Portuguese who had assisted in the Imam's defeat but were beginning to intrigue against him and attempting to convert the country to Catholicism, sending them to Debarwa, the capital of the Bahr Nagash.^[52]

The Ottoman province of Abyssinia, the Habesh eyaleti, had been formally created on 15 July 1555, initially headquartered at Sawakin before expanding inland.^[53]

In 1557, the Ottoman Turks conquered the port of Massawa and under Ozdemir Pasha led an expeditionary force inland where they occupied the town of Debarwa. The Turkish troops then built a large fort at Debarwa, containing gold and silver vases, precious stones, rich vestments, and other valuables obtained through looting, extortions from trade, and the imposition of a poll tax on the local population. The local populace, having acquired a sizable number of firearms, succeeded in defeating the occupying force,^[54] killing an Ottoman military commander named Yeshaq and sending his head to the Emperor in triumph.^[55]

Around this time, the Bahr Negash Yeshaq, described as an "old and tried servant of Galawedewos"^[56], became very powerful due to the access to firearms which were imported through the coast. In 1560/61, Yeshaq, together with the Emperor's cousin Yohannes and a lord named Keflo, proclaimed Minas's nephew Tazkaro as a rival emperor. Minas marched against Yeshaq and routed his forces at Adyabo, though Yeshaq himself escaped, then went on to defeat Yeshaq's Amhara allies in Begemder in July 1561, a force that included Portuguese veterans who had turned against Minas over his hostility to Catholicism. Minas spared the surrendering Tazkaro at first but later had him killed.^[57] According to James Bruce, Yeshaq then "threw himself at the mercy of the Turks" and ceded Debarwa to them in exchange for their support,^[56][58][33] then installed a second rival emperor, Tazkaro's younger brother Marqos. When Minas marched against him again in late 1561 or early 1562, his army was decisively beaten at Endarta by Yeshaq's Ottoman and Portuguese allies, the latter led by Francisco Jacome, who brought muskets and artillery to the battle. Ozdemir Pasha, the long-serving Ottoman governor of Habesh Eyalet, had already died before this battle and could not have commanded it; the Chronicle of King Galawdewos places his death in 1557, while scholarship based on Ottoman archival sources places it in 1561.^[55][59] Minas spent the next rainy season trying to build up his own weaponry but died before he could move against Yeshaq again, leaving the conflict to carry over into the reign of Sarsa Dengel.^[57]

Sarsa Dengel, the young son of Menas, succeeded to the throne in 1563. He then forgave and made peace with Yeshaq, and presented him with many horses, which his territory was known for having, as well as many imported items, such as luxurious clothes and carpets. The chronicle records that as part of the reconciliation, Yeshaq met with two royal women in Abbawi, one of whom was Wayzaro Amata Giyorgis, Sarsa Dengel's paternal aunt. The Turks then chose to withdraw from Debarwa, where Yeshaq went to recapture. However, within a few years, Yeshaq revolted again, this time allying with both the Ottomans and Sultan Muhammad ibn Nasir of Harar.^[60][61]

Furious at Yeshaq's repeated treachery, Sarsa Dengel led a campaign into Medri Bahri, dated to 1576 in some secondary sources, though the chronicle of Sarsa Dengel places the first northern expedition against Yeshaq in 1578 or 1579.^[62][55] Rather than storming Yeshaq's well-fortified capital of Debarwa directly, with its Turkish garrison, Sarsa Dengel's strategy was to threaten the home villages of Yeshaq's Tigrayan soldiers, forcing them to desert. The campaign lasted from 10 November to 26 December 1578. On 13 November Yeshaq and his Ottoman allies put the imperial army to flight, but Sarsa Dengel did not retreat. A second, inconclusive battle on 17 November saw some of Yeshaq's men begin to defect to the Emperor. Although Yeshaq's forces, backed by the Turks, were well provisioned with firearms of various kinds including cannon, the final battle at Addi Qarro on 26 December routed Yeshaq's army; Yeshaq fled but was wounded and returned to die in battle, and the Ottoman commander was also killed in the same engagement.^[63][59] As historian Merid Wolde Aregay argued, the revolt was not driven by "separatist motives" but by Yeshaq's ambition to influence imperial politics from the northern periphery.^[61] The defeat curtailed the broader aspirations of the provincial nobility to break free from the Ethiopian Empire.^[64] Sarsa Dengel thereafter reduced the prestige of the Bahr Negash office, which was temporarily merged with the governorship of Tigray.^[65]

After Yeshaq's death, the Emperor accorded another local chief the title of Bahr Nagash, but the post lost much of its former prestige. Bruce claims that because of Yeshaq's treachery, the post "fell into disrepute", and that the standard and drum, the marks of supreme power, were taken from the office. When a new Bahr Nagash was appointed he still had the privilege of being crowned with gold, but had a cloak thrown over him, one side white and the other dark blue, the officer who crowned him admonishing him of what would befall him if he preserved his allegiance, signified by the white side, and of the disgrace and punishment that attended treachery, figured by the color of mourning.^[65] However, according to the chronicles of Emperor Susenyos I, close contacts between the Bahr Nagash and the imperial interior were maintained during his reign; Susenyos married one of his daughters to the Bahr Nagash, a man by the name of Amda Mikael, for political and strategic reasons. During a punitive expedition against a pretender to the throne, Susenyos visited at least six localities north of the Mareb: Hamasien, Seraye, Akele Guzai, the Debarwa district, the Buri Peninsula, and the "country of the Sahos".^[66]

After the rains of 1587, Ottoman forces again advanced inland to Debarwa and attacked the Emperor's governor, Dejazmatch Daharagot, who simultaneously held the offices of Bahr Negash and governor of Tigray, putting him to flight with heavy casualties.^[67] While the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica dates the conflict to 1590 and notes that the initial attack on Daharagot was repelled, Pankhurst records that the governor was forced to retreat.^[68]

Sarsa Dengel responded by mobilizing his forces. As the Turks crossed the Mareb River, they were ambushed by a local leader named Aquba Mika'el.^[67] During this engagement, Aquba Mikael distinguished himself by killing two Turkish commanders.^[68] Pleased by this success, the Emperor awarded Aquba Mika'el the title of Bahr Negash and presented him with gifts, including a richly caparisoned mule.^[67] Sarsa Dengel then advanced to Debarwa and launched a campaign against the Ottoman position at Hergigo. The Encyclopaedia Aethiopica identifies the Turkish commander there as Kadawered, a corruption of Huda Verdi Pasha, the twelfth Ottoman governor of Habesh Eyalet who had taken office in 1588.^[68]

Following the fighting, Sarsa Dengel had a local Muslim leader, Shaykh Ali Garad, interrogated and executed at Darfo near Asmara for siding with the Turks.^[68] After receiving a peace offering from the Turks, the Emperor turned against Wad Ezum (also known as Yeshaq Wolde Ezum), a Hamasen peasant who had risen to prominence in the 1580s by defeating a Turkish force and capturing its weapons, but who was later installed as a rival Bahr Negash by the Ottomans.^[69][67][68] Wad Ezum was killed in battle by Aquba Mika'el, whom Sarsa Dengel further honored by proclaiming that he should henceforth be called not only Bahr Negash but also "Son of the King".^[67]

Realizing the impossibility of holding the northern Ethiopian highlands, the Turks abandoned Hergigo, and the port was eventually entrusted to a local Beja chieftain with the title of Na'ib, or Deputy. This position remained in use for more than two centuries.^[67]

Ethiopian rulers, though, never fully accepted the Ottoman hold on Massawa. On 26 June 1604, Emperor Za Dengel wrote to King Felipe III of Spain asking that the Viceroy of Goa attack the port, promising that the Ethiopian governor of the coastal province would simultaneously advance to retake Hirgigo, since the Turks on the island depended entirely on the mainland for food and water.^[70] Za Dengel then declared, "We will not send honey, slaves, or other supplies to Massawa, till we have taken power from the Turks." Pedro Páez believed that the Ethiopians were in a strong position to do this as the Turks on the island were dependent on food and water from the mainland.^[70]

Tension over Massawa flared again in 1615, when a Turkish raiding party sent to steal cattle was routed by the Ethiopians, who killed a hundred and ten of the raiders and captured sixty-two rifles. The Pasha of Massawa seized Portuguese goods in reprisal, and Emperor Susenyos responded by ordering the trade route to the port closed until everything taken from the Portuguese was restored; a change of Pasha delayed the dispute's resolution into 1616.^[71] Renewed fighting in 1625 ended in a heavy Ottoman defeat, after which Susenyos believed Massawa within his grasp, though he had no wish to govern it directly. The following year an agreement was reached with Jesuit mediation, exempting the Emperor's goods from tribute at Massawa and Suakin, granting his agents free passage to India, exempting Catholic Church property from taxation, and guaranteeing the Jesuits free movement; the treaty specified that if any article were broken, the Bahr Negash would immediately close the trade routes and seize caravans bound for the port until instructed otherwise by the Emperor.^[72]

The treaty was soon violated, and Susenyos remained reluctant to reassert Ethiopian control at the coast directly. The Jesuit Barradas records that a nobleman of Seraye, a capable soldier with a substantial following, proposed to seize Hirgigo and Massawa himself, but Susenyos refused him permission; Barradas suspected the Emperor feared that a noble once established at the coast might use the position to break free of central authority altogether.^[73] As a result the Naib of Massawa continued to damage the port's trade through his exactions without the Emperor obtaining any share of its revenue, a state of affairs Barradas contrasted with nearby Suakin, whose customs were divided between the coastal ruler and the rulers of the interior.^[74]

Difficulties at Massawa and Hirgigo increased Ethiopian interest in the smaller Dankali port of Beilul, whose ruler was a tributary of the Emperor. The port was so little known internationally that Portuguese pilots traveling there in the 1620s could give no account of its location, and it saw correspondingly little use.^[75]

The exact date of the first Na'ib's appointment is uncertain; most sources place it in the late seventeenth century, though some have suggested the sixteenth. The Na'ib family originated from the Balaw group, which had a power base at Hergigo from around the fifteenth century. In the mid-eighteenth century, Na'ib Uthman Amir (r. 1741–81) received from highland rulers 44 gwelt^[k] lands in exchange for firearms, covering localities near Addi Qayyeh, west of Halay, Emba Derho, Balaza, and Bet Maqa in Hamasen, as well as lands in Seraye and near Adwa. By the early nineteenth century, Na'ib Hasan Idris had famously defied an Ottoman governor of Massawa by declaring that "the Sultan rules in Istanbul, the Pasha in Egypt, and Na'ib Hasan in Massawa." Egypt acquired Massawa from the Porte in 1865 under Khedive Ismail, after which the Na'ib's political autonomy declined sharply.^[76]

Susenyos's own chronicle traces a further line of Bahr Negash holders earlier in his reign. By 1608, his half-brother Se'ela Krestos governed Tigray while also holding the Bahr Negash title, with authority said to extend "up to the Eritrean Sea," but his harsh rule drove the Tigrayans into revolt. The nobleman Gabra Maryam kept faith with both Se'ela Krestos and the Emperor through the unrest, and once Susenyos removed Se'ela Krestos from his post, Gabra Maryam took over as Bahr Negash. Sent to southern Sudan in 1619 to the "country of Arom", he forced the submission of a local ruler known as Queen Fatima, and went on serving Susenyos loyally even after the Emperor's conversion to Catholicism, before eventually losing the Bahr Negash title to Susenyos's son-in-law, Takla Giyorgis.^[77]

Takla Giyorgis had risen through Susenyos's service over more than two decades. A nobleman from Endarta, he first appears in the chronicle in 1605 as shum of Dahana, north of Lasta, and by 1614 governed Semen, where he put down a rebel claiming to be the dead Emperor Yaqob. By 1619, he was already tegre makwannen^[l], leading a Tigrayan force into the region of Taha, possibly near Kassala, and the following year, he joined Susenyos in battle against Oromo raiders in Tigray. He later guided the Jesuit traveler Jerónimo Lobo during a search for the remains of Cristóvão da Gama.^[78]

By 1628, Takla Giyorgis held both the Tigray governorship and the Bahr Negash title at once, and that September he rebelled against Susenyos over the Emperor's continued support for the Jesuit mission. Two other men holding the Bahr Negash title joined him, Yohannes, based between Debarwa and Massawa, and Gabra Maryam, while at the same time he was feuding separately with another Tigrayan chief and Bahr Negash, Amda Mikael, who instead allied with Susenyos against him. The rebellion fell apart after Takla Giyorgis had a Jesuit priest serving as his chaplain killed, prompting Gabra Maryam to abandon him out of fear of royal punishment. Takla Giyorgis was captured by Qeb'a Krestos and taken to Gannata Iyasus, where he was tried and executed, while nothing further is recorded of Gabra Maryam's fate.^[78]

The expelled Catholic Patriarch Afonso Mendes later petitioned the King of Spain that Massawa and Hirgigo be occupied by a Portuguese garrison, with a fortress and permanent troops, as the only remaining means of converting Ethiopia by force; nothing came of the proposal.^[79] Emperor Fasilides, once the Jesuits had been expelled, concluded treaties with the Ottoman pashas of both Massawa and Suakin closing the ports to further European contact.^[79]

The northern power of the Ethiopian crown over the region was fragmented by appointing several governors, but in the 17th century, a Daqqi Tassem dynasty loyal to the Gondarine kingdom emerged, with Daggiyat Hab Sellus based at Sa'azzaga near Asmara. Hamasen then gained a high degree of autonomy and came to include Seraye. In 18th-century versions of the administrative law code Ser'ata Mangest, Hamasen appears divided into Amasen gra and Amasen qann ("northern" and "southern Hamasen").^[23] The successive governors mostly came from Hab Sellus's dynasty, which eventually split into two competing branches: the Enda Sa'azzaga and the Enda Hazzaga. Their authority extended over Bogos, which paid tribute to them until it became Egyptian-controlled in the 19th century.^[23]

The founding figure of the Daqqi Tassem was Atashshim (ca. 1600–50), son of Hezbay, whose own sons included Tasfasen, Gabra Krestos, Abreham, Beruh, Monqoreyos, Zartonay and Musa. Tasfasen in turn established two hereditary ruling lines in Hamasen: Takkala Aggaba, centred around Sa'azzaga and Minab, and Minaba Zaray, centred around Hazzega. After Tasfaeen's death around 1660, his sons all pressed competing claims to the governorship of Hamasen, and their descendants remained in conflict for generations. The height of Sa'azzaga power came under bahri nagashi Solomon Tasfasen, grandson of Dejazmatch Gabra Krestos Habta Sullus, while Hazzega was contested by kantiba Zaray and his son Solomon. This rivalry eventually produced the well-known feud between Hazzega, under the leadership of Hailu Tewolde Medhin, and Sa'azzaga, under the leadership of Wolde Mikael Solomon, which ended with the death of Dejazmatch Hailu Tewolde Medhin at the Battle of Wakki Dabba on 17 July 1876 against Wolde Mikael Solomon.^[80]

Bambolo-Mellash followed a naming convention used for other northern provinces of the Gondarine period, in which the suffix mellash ("beyond" or "starting from") was attached to a river's name. Bambolo was itself the name of a village near the Angarab river north of Gondar, possibly also used as an alternative name for that river or a smaller tributary. As an administrative unit, Bambolo Mellash only existed when an emperor appointed a governor over it, and the place name "Bambelo" is already attested in a list of districts of Wagara dating to the late 16th century, predating Hab Sellus's governorship.^[81]

Hab Sellus (also Habta Sellase) was born at Salale to kantiba^[m] Gabra Sellase of Salale, son of Tasfallase, and etiye Maryata Ab. Hoping to secure the nagarit ^[n] of Hamasen, then held by his cousin Emmeha, he went to Gondar to attend the court of Emperor Fasilides. After seven years there, he attracted the Emperor's notice, demonstrated his courage, and was given an honorary garment and eventually the title abeto.^[82]

Emperor Fasilides then married his daughter (or a relative) to him and appointed his son-in-law, Hab Sellus of Hamasien, as the governor of a province known as Bambolo-Mellash, which included Mereb Melash and much of Tigray. However, he abused his wife so violently that she died, after which he would make his way to the Emperor's palace in Gondar to seek forgiveness. Upon arriving in the palace he addressed the Emperor, saying, "Your Majesty, in your great magnanimity, gave me your daughter and appointed me; but when I wished to approach my wife in accordance with nature and the law she rejected my approach; whereupon I, incited by Satan, raised my hand and struck her; and she died as a result of my blow. Because of this misfortunate I stand before Your Majesty." Fasilides, fearing to alienate the people of Hamasien, spoke to one of his daughter's slaves to confirm the story. He then asked the theologians of his court: "If I pardon him, would I be guilty?" They told him no, so he decided to forgive his son-in-law, declaring, "You did to her what she deserved." But he significantly reduced his fiefdom to just Mereb Melash with the title of Dejazmatch. Hab Sellus subsequently returned to Hamasien and brought the entire region of Mereb Melash under his authority. ^[83]

Hab Sellus appointment is dated to around 1663/64 according to tradition, and the region of Hamasen became so associated with his rule that the phrase medra Ab Sellus ("Land of Hab Sellus") was recorded in the short chronicles as a synonym for Hamasen. His hereditary fief ^[o] was Addi Sefalat in the Loggo Cewa district of Hamasen, where he was buried on 6 September 1704. He founded the dynasty known as the Ad Daggiyat ("family of the Dejazmatch"), drawn from the district of Daqqi Tassem, which held authority over the Marab Mellas until the appointment of Ras Alula Engeda in the 1870s.^[82]

Hab Sellus's son, Gabra Krestos, later traveled to the imperial court in Gondar in his elder brother's place after his brother had refused to represent their father there to present the tribute owed; he used the opportunity to become the Emperor's guardian before rising to the rank of Dejazmatch. Around 1675, the reigning Emperor gave him his relative Sabana Giyorgis as a wife, a descendant of Emperor Fasilides through a female line. In recognition of his rise at court, he was granted the full governorate of the Bambolo Mellash, meaning authority over all the northern provinces (probably excluding Welkait), and became the co-governor of the Marab Mallas alongside his father, while he was still living. He took part in his father's government in a subordinate capacity, attending him during judicial proceedings and audiences with officials, which were always held at May Bala. Their joint government also produced a new law code for Hamasen, the Heggi Hab Sellus Gara Kestos, drawn up with input from the region's assembly of elders; the government of Gabra Krestos was also remembered as a period of enhancement of trade, with new regular markets appearing in Hamasen, including at Debarwa.^[84] After Hab Sellus died on 6 September 1704, Gabra Krestos ruled alone until his own death on 8 November 1713. He was succeeded by his son Mammo, who extended his authority to include Oromo areas and from around 1722 also held the governorship of Welkait for seven years; he suppressed a rebellion in Seraye during his tenure, with Hamasen remaining the centre of power throughout his family's dominance.^[85]

The commercial value of the region in this period is documented by Murad himself, who reported to the Dutch during his 1686-87 visit to Batavia that the Massawa trade was so considerable that Debarwa, the capital of Hamasen, and Seraye each provided Emperor Iyasu with five hundred ounces of gold a year.^[86]

The relationship between Hamasen and the Massawa Na'ib during this period was at times confrontational. In 1693, the Emperor Iyasu's Armenian trade agent Murad returned from a journey to the Dutch East Indies carrying presents for the monarch, which were seized by Na'ib Musa of Massawa. Iyasu, greatly angered, sent a message to Hab Sellus and two other functionaries, as well as "all the people of Hamasen," ordering them to proclaim throughout their domains that no one should bring honey, butter, cheese, or "anything necessary for life" to Massawa until he arrived to attack it, threatening that any transgressor would forfeit his life and have his house destroyed. Hab Sellus and the Hamasen officials enforced the blockade, cutting off provisions to the Na'ib, who was compelled to restore the seized property and added to it "objects a thousand times more numerous."^[87]

The French physician Charles Poncet, visiting in 1700, left a description of Debarwa at the time. He noted that there were then two functionaries simultaneously bearing the title of Bahr Nagash. When news reached Debarwa of the death of Emperor Iyasu's eldest son Fasiladas, both governors immediately ordered the news proclaimed throughout the area by trumpet. The following day they led all the militia and "an infinite number of people" to a church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin for a solemn service for the prince, after which they received the officers and persons of note in a great hall, where men and women sang mourning songs "in so doleful a tone" that Poncet was unable to keep from weeping for the entire hour the ceremony lasted.^[88]

Throughout this period, the leaders of Hamasen, concerned chiefly with protecting their trade routes, generally maintained practical relations with the Ottoman administration of Massawa, including through marriage ties; oral tradition also recalls treaties concluded with the Na'ib. In the 18th century the Na'ib founded a settlement called Bet Maa, identified with the hill known today as Forto in Asmara, populating it with Muslim families who had acquired grazing rights; travelers arriving from the Red Sea would sometimes stay there first before being permitted to enter the Ethiopian Empire.^[89]

According to the French traveller de Maillet, the Na'ib of Hirgigo had at one time sent his own trading agents inland to Gondar, but after they were found attempting to locate Ethiopia's gold mines, the Emperor had them replaced with foreign agents operating directly under his own orders instead.^[90]

However, by 1745, increasing tension at the port again brought in the Bahr Negash. Emperor Iyasu II raised some 450 waqets (ounces) of gold and sent a group of merchants and clergy to Cairo to fetch a new Abuna, but they were seized at Massawa by the Naib and held until at least half their money was surrendered. Iyasu then ordered Ras Mikael Sehul of Tigray and Bahr Negash Solomon to blockade the port in response, though the Naib later forced the captives to pay before the blockade could take effect. The Abuna himself was smuggled through Massawa by Ras Mikael's Greek agent Janni. His companion Tewodros, though, was imprisoned by the Naib until an additional eighty ounces of gold was paid for his release.^[91]

While investigating the Naib's persistent defiance, Iyasu learned that both the governor of Tigray and the Bahr Negash could, in Bruce's own words, reduce Massawa "to nothing with his little finger", and that the Naib's confidence rested with his friendship with Ras Mikael. But when Mikael refused a summons to Gondar over this affair, he fled to the mountain stronghold of Samayat, unsuccessfully resisted, and was ultimately required to come down carrying a stone on his head as a token of guilt before being briefly imprisoned and then pardoned.^[91] The Naib, in the meantime, had made the Emperor a peace offering.^[92]

The exact date of the establishment of the Mereb Melash as a distinct administrative unit is not known, though the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica suggests it may have emerged in the 17th century. Portuguese sources of the same period refer to a province called "Marebo", corresponding to the territory of the Mereb Melash. In that period, the province of Tigray was reported to consist of two segments: one governed by the Tigre Makonnen with twelve provincial governors, and the other by the Bahr Negash also with twelve provincial governors, which corresponds to what later became formally known as the Mereb Melash.^[93]

The Mereb River was consolidated as a firm provincial boundary in the mid-18th century when the older and larger province of Bambollo Melash was partitioned, with Tigray falling to Ras Mikael Sehul and the Mereb Melash going to Anda Haymanot's grand-nephew Booru Solomon; Anda Haymanot's own descendants settled mainly at Kalkalti, their principal fief.^[94]

The decline of the Gondarine monarchy coincided with the rise of Ras Mikael Sehul of Tigray, who, as ruler of the north, inherited the imperial interest in the land of the Bahr Nagash and Massawa. In 1766, he crossed the Marab river to control Hamasen and Saraye, residing briefly at Debarwa. By the end of the 18th century, Ras Wolde Selassie of Tigray held nominal sovereignty over the region, and when he planned an expedition to Saraye and Hamasen in 1800, people from these districts arrived bearing tribute. Pankhurst concludes that the country of the Bahr Nagash "thus remained as for so long in the past a major tributary territory."^[95]

As governor of a province astride the direct route to the coast, Ras Mikael Sehul controlled the greater part of Ethiopia's external trade, profited from the customs dues it generated, and was able to secure the best firearms entering the country.^[96]

In November 1769, the Scottish traveller James Bruce became acquainted with the Bahr Negash while staying in the village of Hadawi (near Segeneiti). He described the unnamed ruler as a "very simple, good-natured man" and a deputy of Ras Mikael Sehul, but he also considered the land to be a "barbarous and unhappy country." Bruce later revealed that the influence of the Bahr Negash had significantly declined due to the loss of Massawa and Hirgigo to the Turks, stating that it was formerly of great importance; "Before the Abyssinians lost the maritime district of Arkeeko, and the port of Masuah, the office of Baharnagash was one of the most important in the kingdom. It is now nearly a nominal one, under the governor of Tigre." He also reports that the district had only been recently incorporated into the province of Tigray by Ras Mikael Sehul with the use of "violence and oppression."^[97][98][99] By the time of Bruce's visit the seat of the Bahr Negash was the village of Hadawi, which had only eighty houses, a striking contrast to Debarwa's former size and standing.^[100]

On later coming to power at Gondar, Ras Mikael Sehul took a harder line with the Na'ib, reportedly warning him that he would lay waste Hirgigo and Massawa and reduce them "to a desert like Samhar"; traders at Massawa, aware of the Ras's reputation for keeping such threats, fled to Arabia or to Debarwa in response. The Na'ib nonetheless continued to withhold dues from both Ethiopia and the Pasha of Jeddah. Bruce observed that the barren Samhar strip behind Massawa and Hirgigo was seasonally abandoned by its herding population every year between April and November, during which time it passed effectively into Ethiopian hands, allowing the governor of Tigray and the Bahr Negash to blockade the ports and cut off their supplies without ever needing to march an army against them.^[101]

The core region of the Mereb Melash, Hamasen, was for centuries led mostly by two rival families from the villages of Hazega and Tsazega. The local elite groups enjoyed relative independence.^[102] Despite this, Tigrayan lords at various points subdued and exercised authority over the region. In 1795, Emperor Takla Giyorgis I appointed Wolde Selassie ruler of all the country from the Angarab river, just outside Gondar, to Massawa, an area corresponding to the greater Bambolo Mellash,^[103] while Sabagadis Woldu and Wube Haile Maryam similarly held authority over the region in subsequent decades.

Sabagadis specifically exercised his authority over the region through local intermediaries rather than direct rule: having subdued Mereb Melash, he appointed Embet Ellen, wife of the Hazzega lord Solomon, as ruler over the whole of Hamasen.^[104] Following Sabagadis's death in 1831, the old rivalries of Mereb Melash broke out again, and Ellen secured the backing of Wube Haile Maryam, who confirmed her in office.^[104]

Wube had briefly been Sabagadis's son-in-law, marrying his daughter Denqe, but switched allegiance to the Warrasek ruler Mareyye Gugsa in 1831 after feeling abandoned by him; when Sabagadis invaded Semen that year to reverse the betrayal he was defeated and killed, after which Wube crushed Sabagadis's sons and had consolidated control over the whole of Tigray by 1835.^[105]

In Hamasen itself, the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica describes him as the de facto head of the region between 1839 and 1855, a period in which he put down a rebellion of local Hamasen chiefs in a battle near Gura and afterward installed a local chief as his deputy over the Karnessem district.^[106] The town of Keren, for example, had previously been administered by local notables paying tribute to the governor of Hamasen while guarding their own autonomy, an arrangement only broken by Wube's raids in the 1840s, after which Keren still paid tribute to Hamasen rather than to Wube directly.^[107] Wube also extended this pressure toward the coast as Egyptian power grew there, raiding Bogos and the approaches to Hergigo; in 1849, his troops attacked Hergigo and looted Catholic mission property at Emkullu, where the French consul also kept his house.^[108]

The integration of Mereb Melash into the Ethiopian imperial system is further confirmed by documentary evidence: the province is listed in the tax records of Emperor Tewodros II as one of the northern provinces paying tribute to the crown, alongside Welkait and other Tigrinya-speaking territories not considered part of Tigray proper.^[93][109]

The scale of this tribute was considerable: of the roughly 200,000 Maria Theresa thalers Tewodros collected annually from Tigray and its dependent regions of Hamasen, Seraye and Akele Guzai, about 32,000 thalers, or over 16 percent, came from Hailu Tewolde Medhin's government of Hamasen and Seraye alone, compared with under 50,000 thalers from the whole of Begemder.^[110]

From the late 18th to mid-19th centuries, there was a long-standing rivalry between the rival Hazega and Tsazega villages. Ato Tewoldemedhin of Tsazega constantly fought to reduce his rivals to obedience. His son, Dejazmatch Hailu Tewolde Medhin, had governed Hamasen since the 1830s. The Encyclopaedia Aethiopica describes him as "a local lord and an ally of ase Tewodros II," and he was eventually forced to flee to Gondar to seek the Emperor's support during the factional fighting.^[111] In September 1858, he fought in Hamasen on the Emperor's behalf, and later pushed back on the Egyptian advance. In 1860, he was reinstated as ruler of Hamasien and Seraye. He maintained this loyalty for years: a letter from Emnata Maryam to Antoine d'Abbadie on 3 October 1867 described him as "the only one loyal to the king."^[111] Only as Tewodros's position collapsed did Haylu switch allegiance to Kassa Mercha, the future Yohannes IV. In December 1868, Kassa Mercha imprisoned him on account of his secret dealings with Egypt, and appointed Wolde Mikael Solomon in his place. ^[111][112]

Emperor Tewodros became the first nineteenth-century Ethiopian ruler to make a concerted effort to recover the port. As early as June 1855, only four months after his coronation, he informed British consul Plowden of his intention to make himself master of the coastal tribes and, if possible, seize Massawa. The British Foreign Secretary Lord Clarendon was persuaded to concur with an Ethiopian annexation, but the plan came to nothing when it became clear the Ottomans would not cede the port.^[114]

Debarwa had served for centuries as the residence and seat of the Bahr Negash, but by the middle of the nineteenth century, it had been overshadowed by Asmara, a settlement in Hamasen that had been known since medieval times. In the mid-nineteenth century, the reigning Bahr Negash, Gurade Zaray, who died in 1866, chose Asmara as his headquarters, with the result that the place soon acquired a position similar to that earlier held by Debarwa.^[115]

Asmara at this period was a modest settlement. Visitors described its buildings as cave-like dwellings dug into the soil and covered by terraces on a level with the higher ground, closed in front by dry-stone walls, with a single opening serving simultaneously as door, window, and chimney. Furniture was minimal, consisting mainly of large seats cut into the earth beside the walls and covered with ox-hides. The traveller Wylde estimated the population at around 5,000 inhabitants.^[115]

The enduring prestige of the Bahr Negash office was acknowledged even by Ethiopia's rivals during this period. When Egypt established its own Red Sea province in 1866, its deputy in the Semhar plains was deliberately given the new title Naýib Al-Bahr, styled directly after the Bahr Negash title, reflecting Egyptian recognition of the institution's historical legitimacy.^[116][117]

When Kassa Mircha (later Yohannes IV) assumed power over Tigray and Mereb Melash as Dejazmatch in 1867, he inherited a province whose local rulers had already developed a pattern of seeking foreign patrons against each other. Woldemichael Solomon, head of the Hazzega family and one of the first to support Kassa, was given the command of Hamasen and Bogos in 1869, but soon fell into Munzinger's orbit and began to send secret letters to France. When Kassa learned of Wolde Mikael's communications with Napoleon III, he stripped him of his governorship and had him imprisoned at Adwa from late 1869.^[118]

Mereb Melash would gain international significance during the reign of Emperor Yohannes IV when it was defended against Egyptian expansionism during the Egyptian–Ethiopian War. In December 1875, a local ruler of the province, Woldemichael Solomon, submitted to the Egyptians at Massawa. This allowed the Egyptians to occupy the entire province with minimal resistance and build a large fort at Gura.

The occupation was not incidental. In a letter of September 1875, the Khedive had outlined plans to organize Hamasen either as a vassal state or an independent government under Egyptian protection, intended as a permanent buffer between Ethiopia and Egypt.^[119] The Khedive separately promised Wolde Mikael that Egypt would annex neighboring regions to Hamasen and name him their ruler.^[120]

A first clash had already occurred at the Battle of Gundet in November 1875, when an Egyptian force of around 2,000 men under the Danish commander Arendrup, advancing from Bogos, was almost annihilated by an Ethiopian army of over 20,000 north of the Mareb River; Woldemichael Solomon fought on the Egyptian side in this engagement before later changing sides. Stung by the defeat, the Khedive dispatched a much larger force of roughly 15,000 men under Muhammad Ratib Pasha, advised by American Civil War veterans including General Loring, leading to the three-day Battle of Gura in March 1876.^[121] Yohannes IV would defeat the Egyptians at the Battle of Gura, forcing them to withdraw from the province.^[122]

After the Battle of Gura, Yohannes did not immediately install Alula. Hamasen was governed in the intervening years by Dejazmatch Gabru Wubet, who held authority over the territory beyond the Mareb from 1871 until 1875.^[123] After Hailu Tewolde Medhin was killed by Wolde Mikael at the battle of Wakidba in July 1876, Ras Bariau Gabre-Tsadiq was sent as the new governor of Hamasen.

On 9 October 1876, Yohannes appointed Alula as governor of the whole Mereb Melash and promoted him to Ras. It was the first time in many centuries that an outsider had been placed over the province's established local families.^[93]Alula was promoted directly from the rank of shalaqa,^[p] and his rise provoked resentment among the Tigrayan nobility; one rival, Dejazmatch Debeb Araya, harassed his administration as a shefta along the Massawa coast until submitting in 1888.^[124] Alula was then authorized to crush the remaining opposition in the province, which resulted in the defeat of the followers of Woldemichael Solomon. But, Woldemichael, with Egyptian backing, repeatedly regained control of the Mereb Melash whenever Alula was recalled south to assist Emperor Yohannes, holding the province from April 1877 until September 1878 before again retreating when new governors arrived. In December 1878, Woldemichael submitted to Emperor Yohannes. He was then confirmed as Ras in an effort to appease him, remaining as governor under Alula's authority.^[122]

Historian Zewde Gebre-Sellassie's chronology has Wolde Mikael killing Ras Bariau Gabre-Tsadiq in May 1877 after being sent fresh supplies of arms from Osman Pasha Rifki, who was the deputy governor of Sudan.^[125] On the contrary the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica dates the battle that claimed his life in 1878 which took place at a site known as Bet Maqa, which corresponds to today's village of Haz Haz, a name meaning "catch catch" in reference to the engagement.^[89]

In the 1870s, Akkele Guzai was incorporated as a sub-province of Marab Mallash under Ras Alula Engeda, before regaining its status as a separate province in its own right in the 1880s and recovering a degree of its traditional autonomy.^[126]

Finally in December 1879, Alula imprisoned Woldemichael and convinced Yohannes to have him jailed in Tigray, eliminating the last hereditary local chief of Hamasen.^[122] Wolde Mikael remained detained through the rest of Yohannes's reign and was only released on the eve of the Metemma campaign in 1888; he subsequently lived out his remaining years in Axum, where he was buried in 1905.^[127] Alula then imposed central government and experimented with land reform aimed at establishing his followers from Tigray, many originating from his home region of Tamben, as Hamasen's new elite, while cultivating commercial relations with Muslim traders and attempting to renew trade with Massawa.^[122]

In a letter Yohannes wrote to Mahdist commander Hamdan Abu Anja in December 1888, reflecting on the war with Egypt, he described it himself:

"They come via Massawa and entered Hamasen. I fought them. God gave me power and I defeated them in two battles."^[128]

In June 1884, the Hewett Treaty was signed, which allowed the Ethiopians to gain free access to Massawa in exchange for the rescue of Egyptian garrisons besieged by the Mahdists. Under the treaty Ethiopia also received the surrender of the Bogos district, which had been held by the Egyptians, back to Alula's government.^[129] Ras Alula had been actively involved in the formulation of the treaty and according to British reports, was fully in favor of it. Emperor Yohannes IV, however, was reportedly skeptical and only agreed to meet with the British mission in the final week of May, signing on 3 June 1884. The Encyclopaedia Aethiopica notes that the British ultimately interpreted the treaty wording as an Ethiopian abandonment of their claim to Massawa, a reading that served British strategic interests in preventing French domination of the Red Sea by allowing Italy to fill the vacuum left by the Egyptian retreat.^[130]

In late 1884, recognising the new opportunities presented by the Hewett Treaty, Alula moved his capital within the Mereb Melash from Addi Taqlay to the small trade center of Asmara, which was better positioned for developing the commercial route to Massawa.^[129]

Massawa was taken over by Italy on 3 February 1885, eight months to the day after the signing of the Hewett Treaty.^[131]

On 23 September 1885, Alula marched west and engaged a Mahdist force under the amir Uthman Diqna at the Battle of Kufit, halfway between Asmara and Kassala. The Mahdist army, estimated at between 6,000 and 12,000 men, was routed; between 3,000 and 5,500 Mahdists were killed, at a cost of around 1,500 Ethiopians, including most of Alula's senior commanders. After his victory, Alula tried to reach Kassala to rescue the Egyptians there, but as Italian forces were already gathering on the coast, he had to abandon the effort and return. The Mahdist defeat at Kufit led the Caliph Abdullahi to declare a holy war against Ethiopia, a step that contributed to Yohannes's decision to march against the Mahdists in 1889 and his death at the Battle of Gallabat.^[132]

Frustrated and distrustful of the local tribes, Alula permitted his men to massacre many of the Nara and Kunama tribesmen in November 1886 and also embittered the Beni-Amer.^[129] In January 1887, before the fighting began, Alula wrote to the Italian military commandant General Gene demanding the withdrawal of Italian troops from the post at Uaa by the 21st of that month and from Zula within one month, warning that "if friendship is to continue, you must do this. Otherwise, you must know that friendship is at an end." Gene refused, replying that his soldiers would remain at Uaa because "they are necessary for the peace of the country." Within a fortnight, conflict broke out.^[133]

On 26 January 1887, Alula ambushed an Italian battalion at the Battle of Dogali, which prompted a renewed Italian military effort and deepened Yohannes's mistrust of Alula's judgment. In January 1888 an Italian force was entrenched around Saati, facing Yohannes's imperial army directly. The Ethiopians could not storm the Italian positions or draw them into the open. After exhausting their supplies, the imperial army retreated in late March 1888 beyond the Mareb, leaving Alula in Asmara.^[134]

A key factor in the fall of Mereb Melash was internal betrayal. Debeb Araya, a Tigrayan rival of Alula who had long resented Yohannes favoring an outsider over the established noble families, had been collaborating first with the Egyptians and later with the Italians. In February 1888, he persuaded Yohannes that Italian aggression was the result of Alula's over-ambition, contributing to Yohannes's decision to recall Alula southward to face the Mahdists. With Mereb Melash thus left undefended, Debeb entered Asmara in February 1889 and killed Alula's deputy. The Italians subsequently entered Asmara without firing a single shot and proceeded uninterrupted to the Mareb River.^[135]

The 1870s brought a virtual depopulation of Hamasen through warfare and famine. In later decades, following the collapse of the traditional power structures of the Daqqi Tassem and the fragmentation of land under Italian rule, groups of Hamasen inhabitants migrated to other areas, especially western Tigray. Together with other Tigrinya speakers from Tigray, these migrants, known as the "Hamasenay," settled on the Šire-Kunama borderlands (Tahtay Adyabo), formerly Kunama grazing and hunting areas, and in the fertile Walqayt highlands. Some also appeared as semi-nomadic cattle-herders in the Humara area.^[89]

Following the death of Yohannes at the Battle of Gallabat, Tigray was completely exhausted from decades of uninterrupted wars. It could no longer challenge the Italians to the north or the Amharas to the south. Menelik II was later recognized as the new emperor, thus cementing Shoan domination over Ethiopia. The loss of Mereb Melash was recognized by Menelik in the Treaty of Wuchale.^[136]

In 1890 (royal decree of 1 January 1890, n. 6592) Eritrea was officially declared an Italian colony, with its capital in Massawa. Its first governor was General Baldassarre Orero, replaced a few months later by General Antonio Gandolfi, a trusted friend of Francesco Crispi. The colony was named Eritrea (which came from the ancient Greek name of the Red Sea) by plenipotentiary minister Carlo Dossi, replacing the previous intended name of "New Ethiopia".^[137]

By the late 19th century, the old Bahr Negash capital had fallen into ruin; the British visitor James Theodore Bent found little left of Debarwa but a handful of stone piles, a half-ruined church, and a few poor dwellings.^[138]